This invention relates to novel electrical conducting complexes. More particularly, it relates to electrical conducting complexes of a polymeric nature.
These electrical conducting complexes have the properties of semiconducters. These complexes are useful in batteries, as electrochemical catalysts, for example, for the halogenation of hydrocarbons, and as semiconducters.
Conducting organic materials have received considerable attention in the past. Acker et al., J.A.C.S., 82, 6408 (1960); found charged transfer complexes of tetracyanoquinodimethane and electron donors formed crystalline conducting materials. Little, Phys. Review, 134, (6a), A1416 (1964), proposed the possibility of room temperature superconductivity with conjugated polymers. McDiarmid oxidized polyacetylene films with arsenic pentafluoride. The oxidized polyacetylene film had a conductivity comparable to mercury on a weight basis. See Shirakowa et al., J.A.C.S. Chemical Communications, 578 (1977). Several other conjugated polymers have been found to be highly conducting when oxidized with arsenic pentafluoride or reduced with sodium or potassium naphthalides. Polymers receiving the most attention have been poly(paraphenylene), poly(phenylenesulfide) and poly(pyrrole).
Major problems preventing the commercial application of conducting polymers have been their instability, especially in the presence of oxygen and water, and the lack of fabricability before and/or after attaining high conductivity.
What are needed are electrically conducting complexes which are stable in the presence of oxygen and water and can be fabricated.